I see the side "spray" as having the potential to add a coating which is very hard to do when printing from the top and trying to "coat" a vertical serface by printing a thin surrounding boundary with a separate print head.

I think with a little work this is feasible. I also know that my current printer doesn't function within tight enough tolernaces to make something like that work. You would be fighting against gravity instead of working with it.

I'd think that adding additional orientations of heads could also be an advantage. While the extruders typically work from above, a head / coater / surface finish from the side might also be a benefit. This head might even have a different material that was intended as a surface coat or bonding agent.

In conjunction with unveiling of EE Times’ Silicon 60 list, journalist & Silicon 60 researcher Peter Clarke hosts a conversation on startups in the electronics industry. One of Silicon Valley's great contributions to the world has been the demonstration of how the application of entrepreneurship and venture capital to electronics and semiconductor hardware can create wealth with developments in semiconductors, displays, design automation, MEMS and across the breadth of hardware developments. But in recent years concerns have been raised that traditional venture capital has turned its back on hardware-related startups in favor of software and Internet applications and services. Panelists from incubators join Peter Clarke in debate.